NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Detroit Red Wings forward Chris Conner will be idled for about two weeks with a broken left hand, but he continues to skate, joining the team on the ice this morning at Bridgestone Arena.

Conner said he was injured early in the third period of Tuesday's 4-1 win at Pittsburgh, when he "felt a jam, but nothing major.''

He finished the game, even made a nice pass to set up Danny Cleary's first goal, but Conner suspected something wasn't right. His fears were confirmed when X-rays after the game revealed a fracture.

“You get that stuff in hockey all the time, where you get a slash or you run into the boards funny,'' Conner said. "You kind of finish and see what happens. It's just a bad break.''

Conner had a point in each of the past three games (goal, two assists) and had meshed in well on the third line with Cleary and Helm, providing speed and energy and being hard on the puck.

“The situation I'm in I want to keep proving I can play at this level and help the team,'' Conner said. "But, it could be worse. I got to stay positive, work hard and be ready to come back.''

At least he can continue to skate.

"Got this thing (soft cast) on that protects it pretty good, try to stay in game shape as best I can,'' Conner said.

The Red Wings have an unidentified player who is nursing a minor injury, but coach Mike Babcock believes he'll play tonight. If not, Tomas Tatar will replace him. Tatar's flight didn't arrive in time for the morning skate, but he'll take the pregame warmup tonight, just in case.

"I think everybody's on deck. we'll see at game time but we got Tatar here in case we don't have everyone on deck,'' Babcock said.

Jiri Hudler spent extra time stretching before the skate and was talking to Babcock and the trainers as he was leaving the ice. He did practice, however, on his regular line: